Virility Boost! In Search of the Beyond Rare Mushroom!
A week after the whole mess with Seol-ah and Rina got sorted out.
Naturally, a few changes had settled over our Seocho Branch as well.
"Welcome."
"Whoa, noona! Aren't you the one who used to hang around Dongdaemun?"
"Oh, it's you. I work here now, so if you want to see my face, come by anytime."
"Ohhh!"
Behind the counter, the former Blizzard—real name Baek Seol-ah—was blankly greeting a customer she knew.
Just as she'd said, she was currently working part-time at the Seocho Branch. Ever since that day she had become endlessly obedient; if it was an order from Yumi or a word from me, she would do literally anything. One careless joke of a command and she would carry it out without hesitation, so I had to watch my mouth around her.
"Seol-ah, once you're done over there, wipe down the counter for me. Lee Baek, stack some stock on the display tables. I'll head upstairs and tidy the field~."
"Understood~."
"Yes, Madam."
"I told you to stop calling me Madam! Aaugh…."
Her way of addressing people had changed too, and she had grown conspicuously polite. The same girl who used to say whatever she wanted now spoke so little she almost lived up to her old alias. She still handled customers normally, but you could tell she was holding back whenever it wasn't strictly necessary.
I guess I should count this as a good thing for now.
『■■….』
One more quirk: whenever Centauros reacted even a little—
"Mmhnn~♪"
—she would part her lips slightly and drift into a dazed haze of pleasure.
Whether it was because her partner held the reins of her soul, or because she had simply accepted her life as a bride, she was happy either way. So every now and then I would call Centauros out just to give her a little stimulation.
Right. Battles aren't that frequent anymore. Maybe I should just leave her with Seol-ah most of the time?
『█████.』
That's a no?
『██, █████.』
If we stay stuck together too long, the master-servant dynamic will tilt toward you instead of me? Look, I'm not interested in Seol-ah. You don't have to shove her off onto me.
『██ █ █~.』
Oh, so virgins are your type and once you've soiled one you lose interest? You really do have the tastes of a complete bastard….
Still, she was his bride, so he planned to maintain the relationship—he just had no intention of giving her any deeper affection. He said it with almost painful bluntness.
I'm into married women, so I have no idea how a card like this ended up as my partner. Our tastes are complete opposites.
And yet Centauros and I still clicked absurdly well.
After tucking my partner away again, I thought back over the report Seol-ah had given me earlier.
Speaking of which, why the hell is that Great Leader guy running an evil organization in the first place? He used to be an archaeologist—maybe he got possessed by something weird on the job? No… the way he kept zeroing in on Yumi and me, it felt more like some fragment of his old self was still hanging on.
If this were the usual cliché, he would have excavated some ancient ruin and gotten possessed by an evil something-or-other. The way he was after the Princess was suspicious too. Why was he so desperate to steal his own son's card? Was the Princess somehow important to this world's lore? I turned it over in my head.
When things get like this, the proper move is to go back through the story.
I dug around for any useful foreshadowing and the best I could come up with was this:
[Cost: 3] [Created]
[Follower] [Dragon] [3 / 4]
Follower of the Little Dragon Princess.
A proud knight of the skies who fights alongside the Rightful Queen.
Especially that phrase—"Rightful Queen."
Why bother saying "rightful"? If she simply held the throne, there would be no need for a word like that.
I was thinking I should sit the Princess down for a private talk later when the shop door opened.
Speak of the devil and all that… except this time the visitors weren't Taeyang and the Princess.
"Hello, Lee Baek~."
"Oh. Ga-eun!"
The black-haired, red-eyed beauty in her signature "sexy young wife" look had arrived.
Where did the usual sharp edge go? She's acting incredibly soft today.
I almost blurted out something stupid like "What brings you here at this hour?" and swallowed it just in time.
She's already beating herself up for working late while leaving her kid behind. The last thing I should do is poke that wound.
I congratulated myself for not putting my foot in my mouth and gave her a bright smile. She returned a quiet little laugh of her own, and only after Yumi came downstairs did she finally say the thing I had almost asked.
"Remember the parent-teacher conference I couldn't make last week? I just finished it. Manbok was awkward at first, but by the time we walked back to the classroom he was all smiles. I was so happy~!"
"Sounds like you two managed to talk things through?"
"Yes. About the shop, specifically. I'm going to hire one sharp kid so I can take it easy on school days. Looking back, I had enough savings—I just got too buried in work thinking about his future. The future matters, sure, but so does the time we have right now, doesn't it?"
She was kicking herself for not thinking of something so simple sooner, but no one was going to criticize her for it.
Knowing Ga-eun, she had thrown herself into work so she could raise Manbok into a proper adult and send him to a good university. Who could fault her for that?
"Don't be so hard on yourself. From where I'm standing, you fixed it plenty early."
"Really? You're not just saying that because you're standing next to Yumi and trying to comfort me?"
"I have no idea why you'd bring Yumi into this, but once he hits middle school and puberty really kicks in, there would have been no going back. Considering that, the relationship you and Manbok have right now is ideal."
I meant every word.
If she hadn't resolved it by then, it wouldn't have stopped at "troubled teen" territory…!!
"Hearing that from a fellow man like you puts my mind at ease."
Ga-eun laughed softly and glanced sideways. Baek Seol-ah was standing there in a perfect ninety-degree bow, clearly still mortified by the verbal abuse she had unleashed that day and looking extremely tense.
"I heard from the two of them. You got brainwashed and went through a lot yourself, right?"
"Yes. Even so, when it comes to the children we kidnapped… I truly have no face left to show you."
"It's fine. I was angry at first, but the real villains are Locust. And no matter how thoroughly you were brainwashed, dressing an adult like you in that kind of perverted outfit… you must have been terrified someone would take pictures. Seol-ah, you suffered too."
"………."
Baek Seol-ah's eyes darted all over the place.
If memory served, she hadn't actually hated that slutty getup.
But hearing a stranger say it out loud was making cold sweat pour down her face from sheer shame.
"Th-thank you for understanding."
She let it slide anyway.
She knew better than anyone that she was in no position to get angry.
"But Unnie, what brings you to the shop?"
"I wanted to thank Lee Baek in person before heading home. I heard he played a huge part in breaking the brainwashing?"
"That's right. Once Seol-ah—the one who was the core of the brainwashing—went down, everything came undone for the rest of them."
Technically I had only been trying to punish Seol-ah for her snide attitude and just happened to win.
"Thank you. Because of you, all the kids made it out safely. Our Manbok was in bad shape after his battle, but the moment your match ended he snapped right back to himself."
"You already thanked me over the phone last time."
"That was just a call. Proper gratitude has to be face-to-face. You saved my kid—how rude would it look if I didn't?"
I hadn't cared in the slightest, but apparently it had been weighing on Ga-eun.
"Oh, right. Yumi, take a look at this."
She suddenly held out her phone. Curious, we both leaned in and found ourselves staring at a list of pensions over in Gangwon Province.
"What's this?"
"Haven't you heard the rumor?"
"What rumor?"
"They're saying the Beyond Rare Mushroom is coming up in Gangwon this year, so every couple is scrambling to go. How about you free up some time and we all head out together—me, Lee Baek, and the kids?"
"The Beyond Rare Mushroom!?"
"???"
I'm screwed. This is a conversation I can't follow at all.
One second it was ordinary daily life; the next I was being dunked head-first into the Beyond World.
Wh-what the hell is a Beyond Rare whatever?
Yes. It's a specialty that grows in Yangyang-gun, Gangwon Province, and the grand prize of the annual Beyond Mushroom Festival. Among countless mushroom cards it is the absolute finest, and only a limited number are prepared each festival, making it an extremely rare card you cannot obtain anywhere else unless you go yourself.
Stop. That's enough.
I also hear the sleeves that grow alongside them are incredible. Chew them together with the mushrooms and an astonishing flavor and aroma supposedly flood over you. And the taste isn't even the end of it—
My brain already blue-screened at the part about chewing sleeves, so please stop explaining.
It's famous for boosting virility and rejuvenating the genitals. There was even a story of a 120-year-old couple who conceived a child that year after using it. The card itself is extremely powerful, so hordes of cooking battlers are after it.
Stop pouring garbage information into my head!!
While we were whispering, both women's gazes locked onto me.
The conversation had already reached the "if Lee Baek's okay with it, let's all go" stage.
"What do you think, Lee Baek?"
"What about the shop?"
"I'll handle it. Madam and Lee Baek, please go enjoy yourselves. I used to run the shop across the street by myself, so this sort of thing is nothing new."
"There you have it~♪"
"Unnie, even so, dragging Lee Baek along on a rare-mushroom hunt is a little…."
"Come on. It's not like it's just the two of you. I'm going, and we're bringing the kids. I'm offering to book the pension as thanks for last time—what's the problem?"
"Still…."
Yumi's eyes kept flicking back and forth.
So the mushroom festival is one of those things? The kind of festival couples go to so they can get along better in bed?
With cooking battlers swarming the place, it won't be quite the atmosphere you're imagining. That said, couples usually do go aiming for exactly those effects. In Ga-eun's case, it seems she simply wants to push the two of you together.
It was way too blatant. She had parked the kids somewhere safe and was cheerfully inviting us along while clearly digging a trap.
"What about you, Lee Baek? I mean… if coming along for something like this feels like too much… you can refuse…."
"………."
Ga-eun's eyes glittered. She was smiling, but the signal she was sending me was crystal clear: Refuse and I will castrate you.
Why do women always stick their noses so deep into other people's love lives….
If I turned this down she would definitely wilt, so I accepted on the spot.
"No, it's fine. I've been wanting to get out somewhere far and try to recover some of my memories anyway. I just didn't know how to bring it up, seeing as I'm basically a freeloader."
"Ah! Really~? Then come with us this time!"
"Yes, yes. I'd be grateful."
"That's right. We should check what supplies we need for the pension too~! If we're missing anything we can go shopping with Unnie tomorrow~!"
Beaming like the sun itself, Yumi hurried off to check whether the necessary items were in the storage room.
She was doing this even though we still had a customer—I had no idea how excited she really was.
"That girl almost never leaves the shop because she's been raising Taeyang. Take this chance and make some good memories together."
"Sounds like you've got a whole pile of other motives stacked up."
"Oh my. Of course not~."
Look at that sly smile.
I wasn't exactly opposed either, so I escaped the moment with an endlessly awkward sigh.